Leon Topalian
Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer at Nucor
Thanks, Jack, and welcome everyone. I'd like to begin by thanking the 31,000 members of the Nucor team for delivering another outstanding quarter. The investments we've made in recent years to grow our core and expand into new markets are generating strong returns for our shareholders, increase capabilities for our customers and the Nucor team is executing safely and efficiently. In fact, through the first half of 2023, we're on track to set another annual safety record for the fifth straight year, further proof for the world-class performance by Nucor teammates who live our culture, every single day.
Looking at our financial performance in the second quarter, Nucor generated approximately $2.2 billion of EBITDA and $1.5 billion of net earnings or $5.81 per diluted share. On a year-to-date basis, we've generated $4 billion in EBITDA and $10.26 earnings per share, representing our second best start to any fiscal year in Nucor's history.
Each of the three reporting segments saw higher earnings in Q2 compared to Q1, with the largest gains coming from the steel mills segment, which saw higher realized pricing. The steel mills order book remains healthy, with strong demand from automotive, energy, heavy equipment, bridge construction datacenters and manufacturing. And within steel products, Q2 marks the fifth consecutive quarter with segment earnings of approximately $1 billion or higher and we continue to see a healthy backlog at attractive margins through the remainder of the year.
Looking ahead, we believe steel markets for the remainder of the year will remain healthy, driven by strong manufacturing investment and infrastructure spending. U.S. GDP growth forecast for 2023 have been revised upward on multiple occasions in response to economic data that continues to demonstrate the resiliency of the U.S. economy.
Turning to our growth strategy, we've completed slightly more than 50% of our $10 billion capex plan to grow our core steel making operations. Several of these investments are already generating incremental earnings and growing our share in key markets. Over the next several years, we'll continue to execute on our capex plan to better position Nucor with more value-added steel making capabilities. In our sheet mill group, we've continued our ramp-up at Nucor Steel Gallatin in the second quarter, the Gallatin team has achieved full run rate production levels in June and saw increasing levels of profitability each month of the quarter. I'd like to congratulate our entire Gallatin team for their continued focus on safely bringing the facility to full run rate production, as well is taking care of our customers during this time.
At Nucor Steel, West Virginia, we expect to begin construction in the coming weeks. We remain excited about this transformative project to serve the heartland of American steel consumption with a considerably lower carbon footprint. In our plate mill group, the Brandenburg team in Kentucky continues to ramp up production at the most advanced EAF plate mill in the world. As we've shared before, our focus at Brandenburg in 2023 is on improving our capabilities rather than maximizing output.
We spent the first half of the year, dialing into caster and downstream operations and we're now producing finished products ranging in thicknesses from 1 inch to 12 inches. In the second half of '23, we expect to produce approximately 300,000 tons and turn profitable by year's end. Our customers continue to express strong interest in Brandenburg's capabilities and our team there is working to ensure we can provide a full range of plate solutions.
Finally, in the bar mill group, construction on our new rebar micro mill in Lexington, North Carolina broke ground in May and is slated for completion by early 2025. This highly efficient 430,000 ton bar mill will serve the growing construction markets throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.
Our steel products segment continues to generate strong earnings with nearly $2 billion of pre-tax earnings year-to-date, representing 45% of Nucor's earnings mix for the first half of 2023. This is a testament to our industry-leading capabilities across a broad array of engineered steel, construction products and solutions. Today, Nucor can produce an estimated 90% of the steel intensity of a typical manufacturing facility or large warehouse with over 100 fabrication centers throughout North America, we are the leading supplier of the steel products, most commonly used in non-residential construction.
Last year, we provided solutions to more than 5,000 steel products customers with non [Phonetic] representing [Phonetic] more than 5% of consolidated revenue. And we're leveraging our channels to market and broad capabilities to cross-sell products such as overhead doors, racking and other solutions. In recent years, our customers are attributing more value to the solutions we provide, helping to depart from the traditional cost plus paradigm. They recognize the incremental value we provide through engineering, detailing, fabrication, custom finishing and our nationwide logistics capabilities.
As a result, products such as joist and deck, pre-engineered metal buildings and insulated metal panels command higher margins than in years past. Our performance also reflects some fundamental changes we've made to improve efficiencies in metal buildings and rebar fabrication, which are now driving better results for our customers and our shareholders.
Turning to our Expand Beyond strategy, we're pleased with the initial success of our four new growth platforms and we continue to develop a pipeline of potential growth opportunities. During the second quarter, Nucor Towers and Structures, announced the location of our second new production facility in Crawfordsville, Indiana. There is considerable growth potential in the utility infrastructure market with the need to expand in hardened transmission infrastructure, while accelerating the connection of distributed renewable energy to the grid.
As we evaluate and pursue new Expand Beyond platforms, we're focused on opportunities that leverage our core capability as an efficient industrial manufacturer and are aligned with steel intensive mega trends or themes. Passage in the implementation of the infrastructure bill, IRA in CHIPS and Science Act are helping to drive these mega trends and Nucor intends to capitalize on them further to grow and diversify our earnings potential. The goal of our growth strategy is not simply about being the biggest steel company, it's about providing a differentiated capability set for our customers and creating long-term economic value for our shareholders. We aim to generate returns of the economic cycle, comparable to the best manufacturing companies in the world. That's why we're seeking opportunities with attractive growth rates, stronger free cash flow, great synergy potential and more stable earnings profiles.
Before turning it over to Steve, I'd like to provide some updates on our sustainability strategy. In May, we announced an MOU with NuScale to explore locating NuScale small modular reactor power plants near certain Nucor steel mills and in June, we announced a partnership with ExxonMobil to capture transport and store CO2 emissions from our DRI plant in Louisiana. We believe this is the first carbon capture project have DRI facility and will enable us to produce the lowest embodied carbon DRI in the world. Even though our emissions intensity is already 60% lower than the global steel making average, Nucor continues to aggressively pursue strategies that further differentiate itself as the leader in sustainability for our industry.
With that, let me turn it over to Steve, who'll share additional details about our Q2 performance, as well as our outlook for Q3. Steve?
